76 Reindeer, — Barren Ground Caribon. 



can without being seeen, then throws himself upon the ground, draws his 

 coat of skins over his head, and arranges it so as to resemble somewhat the 

 form of a deer. He then attracts the animals attention by a loud bellow. 

 Urged on by his curiosity, the silly caribou approaches to examine the myste- 

 rious object, capering about and running round in circles. Meanwhile the 

 Indian remains perfectly still, well knowing that his prey will not be satis- 

 fied until he can get a near view, When within a short distance, twelve or 

 twenty yards, the hunter shoots him with an arrow. Many of the northern 

 Indians are still without guns, but they use their rude bows and arrows 

 with great effect. 



The Esquimaux digs a pit in the snow, and heaps up its sides, so that 

 from a distance it rsembles a small rounded hillock. Within, the walls of 

 the pit are perpendicular, and its mouth above is covered with a slab of ice, 

 so arranged that when the deer walks over it, one end tips down suddenly, 

 and having precipitated the deer into the pit, turns back and closes the en- 

 trance. For this purpose it is contrived with an axle running through it, 

 and it appears from this account, if it be true, that the ice and snow of the 

 north, owing to the intensity of the cold, is more solid and tough than it is 

 in our countrv. 



The Indians also construct large inclosures of brushwrod, sometimes a 

 mile in circumference, with a narrow entrance, situated upon one of the 

 more frequented paths of the deer. Within they have a multitude of wind- 

 ing lanes, formed of similar materials. In these they place a great many 

 snares, made of deer-skin thongs of great strength, and then by various 

 expedients manage to drive a herd of the deer into the enclosure. The ter- 

 rified animals run about in all directions through the winding avenues, be- 

 come entanjrled in the snares, and soon the whole herd is killed. Great 

 numbers, it is said, are slain in this way, and some families are so successful 

 that they do not recjuire to remove then- tents morethan two or thi-ee times 

 in a season. 



The barren ground caribou spends the winter in the woodland 

 regions, subsisting upon mosses and shrubs, and in the summer regularly 

 migrates towards the north and the sea coast, and returns again to the 

 south in the autumn. 



Geographical Distribution. 



From all the information we have been able to collect upon the subject, 

 Tarandus arcticus never travels as far south as Canada, although its near 

 relative, the woodland caribou, is abundant in certain parts of the Province. 



Audubon and Bachmau state that from the " Barren Grounds," it ran- 

 ges westvvard across the continent, and that it is ineutioned by several 

 authors as inhabiting the Fox or Aleutian Islands. " It is not found so far 

 to the southward on the Pacific as on the Atlantic coast, and is not found 

 on the Rocky Mountains within the limits of the United States." In every 

 part of Arctic America including the region from Hudson's Bay to far 

 within in the Arctic circle, the Barren Ground Caribou is met with in greater 

 or less abundance. 



